New York City’s Union Square is a popular destination for urban explorers, but between the almost daily green market (farmers’ market) and the now incredibly organic, fair-trade, every-other-ecofriendly-adjective-you-can-think-of Union Square Holiday Market, it may just be the greenest place in town.

Visiting Union Square

Even though I’ve lived in New York City for over a year now, I am definitely still a tourist in most neighborhoods. I’ve even talked to several people who’ve lived here for twenty years and still pack their whole family up for an adventure in unexplored neighborhoods as a weekend outing.

When I visited the holiday market for the first time last year, I thought the market was designed exactly for those people–folks who come (like me) to lower manhattan from other neighborhoods to do some shopping and soak up “the city.”

Union Square, right in the middle of NYU territory–an easy walk from Madison Square, Soho, and even Times Square and Bryant Park if the weather’s nice–is second only to Times Square or the statue of Liberty in terms of the “must-see” NYC places people who come to visit me in the city have to get to.

So you can only imagine my surprise when I found one of New York’s ultimate urban attractions celebrating the holiday season in seemingly exclusively earth-friendly style.

The Green Holiday Market

As we battled our way through the inescapable crowds jam-packed into the barely four-foot-wide aisles of the dense but sprawling market, we saw less of the usual holiday market items than we expected.

Sure, there were hats, scarves, cookies, and (non-alcoholic) mulled wines (yeah, I’m not sure how they do that either), but these vendors were distinctly outnumbered by a very different type of product: fair-trade, sustainably-sourced gifts from all around the world.

Though we only specifically took note of a few such vendors in the first few aisles we explored, after about ten minutes, we realized that we were in ethically-minded shopping heaven.

Ecofriendly Vendors of the Union Square Holiday Market

While I’m sure there are some stalls that we didn’t see or couldn’t reach, here is a compendium of the best ecofriendly shopping at New York’s Union Square Holiday Market:

When she was ten, Gabi Logan was commended by her school as an "environmentalist" after spending recess and lunch picking up trash around her school for a week. Now she's a freelance blogger and travel writer who encourages travelers to use sustainable travel methods and connect to local culture along the way. Her work has also appeared in Transitions Abroad, GoMad Nomad, and publications at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You can read more about her at gabilogan.com.

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About Linda ::

Hello! I'm Linda, a freelance journalist and travel writer with a passion for green living and the natural world. Originally from Northern Ireland, my obsession for travel started at a young age and has yet to abate. I’ve been diving with sharks, surf really badly and would like to sail around the Indian Ocean one day. Till then, you’ll find me in the land down under, always planning the next big trip.